In Which Kaito Drives More Carefully
by Beiowulf
Summary: When the summer days draw to a close, Kaito resigns himself to the fact that the next nine months will be monotone and unrewarding. Is there anything that could make the school year less tedious?


**To readers outside North America: **I'm not really sure what parts of the world they use school buses in other than America, but if you don't know what a school bus is this fic may not make much sense. Go google it if you must, but it's really not that difficult of a concept. It's basically a bus that is used specifically for students to get to and from school. It picks them up and drops them off at their houses and only runs twice a day. Just thought I'd clear this up :)

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How did he wind up in this position?

Jamming down grouchily on the snooze button, Kaito pulls himself upwards, barely holding back a yawn. Outside it is still dusky black, the sun a mere tinge on the eastern horizon. With a sleepy squint at his alarm clock he sighs and swings his legs over the side of his bed, treading across the room to enter his small kitchen.

A press of a button gets the coffee machine working, steam spewing from the black appliance and gurgling sounds echoing through the economical lodge. Kaito stands off to the side, rubbing his face and splashing his eyes with water from the sink. As the black liquid seeps down into the pot he ambles back into his bedroom and throws on some day clothes, not bothering to brush out his hair. By the time he returns to the kitchen the coffee is made and he tosses it into a cup before grabbing his keys and rushing out into the late-summer air.

The sun has risen to a rosy glow as he shuts the door on his three room cottage and strolls through the dusk, feet kicking up dust from the worn gravel driveway. It wafts upwards and chokes him, sputtering curses as his eyes begin to water. He's been using the same path for two years now and he doesn't have enough money to regrade it. He doesn't have enough money for much of anything.

How did he wind up here again? Glancing upwards at his destination he remembers.

A large yellow school bus stares back at him, empty and beckoning him to warm its oversized engine.

Oh, that's right. This is the type of job you get when you drop out of school.

_The first day is always the worst,_ he wearily reminds himself as he trudges up the steps to the driver's seat. The calm laziness of August dog days almost instantaneously wash off of him, replaced with the usual irritable indifference that accompanies him most of the school year. With a glance at his road map he takes note of the new bus stops, turning the key in the ignition blindly and feeling the machine rumble to life.

Gusts from the side window buffeting through his hair, Kaito directs the saffron mammoth down the road, squinting through the glare on the windshield. Trees and farmland line either side of him, comely houses squatting a safe distance away. Even though this is supposedly Main Street his only company are the cows lazily trodding through pastures and flicking their tails gruffly as the bus rumbles by.

Kaito supposes that it isn't the worst gig in the world; it's better than the poor slob who has to pick up his garbage every Monday. He gets to keep the vehicle all year and doesn't pay for gas. Because of his younger age most of the kids he drives like him and he doesn't consider them too annoying.

Even so, this is really only a job for someone who's just trying to get by. No luxuries, no savings; he's lucky he was able to barter forth a tiny fixer-upper to live in. Sometimes a super friendly mother will bring him a pie or something as 'appreciation for his work', but other than that he's on his own. And at twenty years old Kaito had always somehow imagined himself as becoming a person worth knowing, not just some impoverished drop-out who tows kids to class and back.

I suppose things don't really work out the way you expect them to.

Stepping on the brakes, the bus screeches to a halt with a whirl of old gears and rusting axles. He glances at his paper, matching the address for the newly added stop to the nearby mailbox, and pushing open the door with a jolt of a lever. He eyes the newcomer up and down a few times before his curiosity is sated and he leans back in his seat, thumb grazing along the edge of the steering wheel.

There is silence for a moment before someone swiftly steps up into the vehicle and plops down in the seat directly behind the driver. He shuts the door and turns off the flashers before continuing down the street. The countryside is dyed in a golden-orange sunrise by now, streaks of the light filtering through the trees they pass under. With a tired shake of his head a yawn erupts from Kaito's mouth and he takes a swig of lukewarm coffee.

"Um, excuse me." The voice is high and airy, carrying a trace of an unfamiliar accent that strengthens over the vowels. Kaito glances upwards, taking sight of his single passenger in the overhead mirror.

"Hm?" he responds, very eloquently, and raises an eyebrow. The girl behind him bites her lips, meeting his eyes in the reflection and drumming her fingers delicately on the back of his seat.

"This is the bus for Crypton High, correct?"

He snorts. "Shouldn't you have asked that before you got on?"

The girl merely blinks at him with eyes that seem too wide and bright for the rest of her. With a shrug he looks back at the road, taking a turn and gently drifting down a hill. "There isn't another high school for thirty miles around. I hope this is the Crypton bus."

She tilts her head and her hair tumbles over her shoulders, long aquamarine stuff pulled high into two smooth pigtails. "You mean you are not sure?"

He scowls. "It's just a saying, newbie." He sees the girl smile in his peripheral vision.

"I'm sorry," she sits up a little straighter and Kaito meets her eyes again. "I was making sure. You seem a little young to be a bus driver."

Her words hit him hard, though he doesn't show it, and he quickly diverts the conversation away from the topic. "You seem to be a little young for a high schooler." This seems to be a sore spot for her as well as she stiffly squares her shoulders and pouts.

"I am a senior!" Her voice is pitched and disbelieving, much like a disturbed chipmunk.

Distracted by the sudden outburst he looks her over once more, taking in all the details. The pigtails, her shortness, that funny accent; this kid is going to get picked on like hell. He shakes his head almost knowingly and reaches over to open the door for the next student who gets on without even looking up from her phone. Even though she goes by unnoticed, the new girl watches the other passenger with apprehension, her fingers drumming ever faster on the seat.

Kaito feels a prick of pity within him; she knows she's an outsider, and she's nervous. She really has every right to be. The small town of Yamaha is extremely secluded and it would not surprise him if the other students would just outright reject a transfer like her, especially one that seems to be from an entirely different country. Most people live here all their life or they leave and never come back. 'Moving in' is something that doesn't happen very often and when it does no one seems to know how to deal with it.

He pulls the door shut with a clack and powers the bus forward, following familiar roads and stopping every so often to pick up another student who always looks slightly older than he remembers. The sky is a golden hued blue by now and the last drops of his coffee have been drained from its Styrofoam cup. Behind him there is no sound as groggy teenagers absently click away on their electronics or doze off in their seats. In the spot behind him the girl has rested her chin on the shoulder space of his chair, her eyes gazing downward idly. Her hands are folded neatly in her lap, her shoulders relaxed from her forward bent position. As if feeling his brief attention her gaze darts back up to meet his in the mirror, her lips parting for a moment before settling on a question.

"What is the school like?" He frowns and looks back at the road, stopping and opening the door for a kid before answering.

"Why do you assume I went there? And go ask them." He jerks his head in the direction of the back. The foreigner glances back there briefly before looking back at him, a quiet discontentment clear in her expression. Everyone is sitting at least three seats away from the newcomer, chatting mutedly amongst themselves or not talking at all and choosing instead to stare out the window – anywhere but her. Kaito sees the distinct discomfort that approaching such a crowd would cause on both sides, but he can't think of a way around it. She'll have to talk to them eventually if she's going to school here. Besides, if she makes some friends maybe she'll leave him alone so he can stop slowing down and missing turns every time she talks to him.

The girl is still for a moment, her gaze turned back to the other passengers. Very slowly she rises from her seat, gripping the backs of chairs to hold her upright amidst the movement of the vehicle, and works her way back three spaces to where two girls chitter together. Kaito glues his eyes to the road, satisfied in her actions and returning to focusing on his speed. Although he does stretch the rules in regards to safety from time to time – like letting her get up and move while the bus is traveling – he doesn't particularly feel good about the distracted way he's been driving today. An accident on the first day of school would be hard to explain to his boss and frankly he just doesn't want to deal with all the paperwork and paycuts.

Despite his determination to stay on task the slight pattering of feet quickly brings his attention back to the overhead mirror and he frowns confusedly as the teal haired girl practically throws herself back into her original seat, her eyes glued to the headrest in front of her. Stretching upwards he can see her cheeks tinted red with shame and her lips pulled into a thin line. With a glance back out the windshield he swiftly peeks back towards the pair of girls she had been talking to. Their lips are pursed and puckered as if they had just eaten something sour and they mutter to each other grumpily. Kaito painfully pulls his gaze back to the road, trying to shake off the ominousness he feels with a shrug of his shoulders and an assurance that these things happen.

A soft sigh reaches his ears, resonating within his chest like a breath he can't quite exhale.

Even so, it's really too bad that her first attempt went so poorly.

He frowns into the rising sun as the bus speeds down the main road, some traffic becoming faintly perceivable as a few cars pile up behind him. The whispers in the back rise in volume as they approach the high school, the maroon brick buildings seeming like a fortress against the backdrop of the bright sky. Other buses are already pulling through the traffic circle there, dropping off students from all over the county. Papers rustle and zippers zip as he turns onto the parking lot, traveling slowly through the lanes until he reaches the front doors. The bus doors pop open and he leans back in his seat, flicking the lid of his coffee disinterestedly as brooding upperclassmen and too-cheerful freshmen exit the vehicle. A few call out to him, commenting on the heat or poking fun at him as typical. He responds with a grunt and an eye roll until the last person reaches his line of vision.

He doesn't know why she's the last one off; she was sitting right behind him. With hands clasped in front of her she inclines her head slightly towards him as she takes her leave, an unfamiliar gesture that moves him to reach out and graze her arm, wanting to say something in reply. It is only when those bright wide eyes meet his own tired ones that he realizes he doesn't really have anything to respond with.

He could wish her a good year, but what would that mean? She's probably heard it from too many people already, and from what he's seen already it would be a vain wish. This is not going to be a good year for her. She's too new, too strange, and everyone's going to notice.

Does he really have to say anything? Why did he hold her back? Why is he still holding her back as she stares at him with those confused and surprised blue orbs, traced with a hint of apprehension? She's just a passenger, and he only met her today. As a senior he'll know her for about nine months and then she'll disappear from his life, never to be heard of again.

No, he doesn't have anything to say.

"If," His mouth moves of its own accord, his expression widening into surprise even as he's talking. He doesn't know why the words spill - he had decided not two seconds ago that it didn't matter, she didn't matter. "If anything goes wrong," He drops his gaze, resigning himself to the words and eyes tracing patterns in the dirt on the floor. "Just come tell me."

Only her shoes are visible to him as the last syllable falls out with a sigh, the silence from the girl feeling like acid on his bones. The ankle high flats are dyed in the most ostentatious rainbow color pallet he has ever seen and he almost feels like laughing at them as they move closer, eventually falling out of his sight as the girl stands in front of him, one hand clenching the material of her skirt anxiously.

Before he has time to turn away or give some sarcastic follow-up to prove his actual disinterest there is a quick flutter of something warm and soft on his right cheek, so light he might have thought he'd imagined it if not for the swath of aqua hair that tickled his nose. His eyes widen and she hurriedly retreats, leaving behind a smell of sea and air as a shy smile spreads across her face. With a turn that sends her twintailed locks flying she bounds off the bus and rushes across the concrete, Kaito dazedly gazing after her. At the front entrance she pauses and her shoulders heave as she takes a breath, steadying herself, and pushes through the doors, the blinding contrast of her freshness against the ancient exterior of the school vanishing in an instant. Kaito stays frozen for a while, his brain clicking in slow unorganized beats. He falls back in his chair, one hand on the wheel, and dumbfoundedly gazes out the windshield. The other vehicles maneuver around him like water flowing around a fallen rock, not seeming to notice that something other than their own actions is taking place.

With his hands raking through his hair, Kaito fumbles with the key, barely able to see it somehow. He finally turns it and the engine starts up again, steady and low as always. He can't help the awkward smile that breaks across his face, despite how much he tries to suppress his sudden delight. From early on, Kaito had decided to never get too pleased, never look forward to anything, because without a doubt he would always be disappointed. Because of this rule of his, he had lived so far in relative peace, never being let down but never being pushed up either.

Somehow that rule is at the back of his mind as he pulls out of the lot and drives back the way he came. With the sky finally reaching its usual cerulean tone, Kaito is fairly certain that maybe,_ maybe_, he might just be looking forward to this afternoon.

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**A/N: **Somehow this expanded in my mind to be waaaaaaaaaaaay more than it was supposed to :P

Katadenza, this was meant for you, but it didn't really turn out very fluffy. I think my fingers have something against any plotline that doesn't involve angst and/or some kind of sweetness buffer. I'll try again if you want ^-^'

Ah, back to school. This felt sort of relaxing to write; I could get all that _first day madness _off my chest ^^'. The neighborhood and school are based off of my own. Although sadly I don't have an awesome twenty year old bus driver ;A;


End file.
